Texas Rangers baseball and more, by Scott Lucas

January 17, 2005

Soriano signed

Reasonable, given the circumstances. Soriano becomes the third highest paid player on the team, behind Chan Ho Park and Alex Rodriguez. While I'm not the president of the Fonzie Soriano Fan Club (or even a member), I do expect him to produce better in 2005. However, now that his cost is certain, Texas might pursue a trade more aggressively.

The Rangers now have fourteen players signed at a combined salary of just over $52 million. Matthews and Almanzar are arbitration-eligible, and the rest are subject to the whims of management. Assuming no other significant transactions, the team's Opening Day payroll (including A-Rod) ought to be in the range of $56-58 million, $29.5 million of which will fall into the hands of Park, Rodriguez and Soriano.